What will you need to make money Blogging

What will you need to make money Blogging

Now that you have done your research and worked out what niche you want to enter it is time to start bringing all of the different elements together for starting and monetizing a blog.

1. Get a Blog
If you’re planning to make money from blogging then it goes with out saying that you will need
to start a blog. :)

When anyone asks me about starting a professional money making blog I always recommend them to use self hosted WordPress as it’s the best platform for bloggers. I always recommend to new bloggers to use BlueHost to host their new blogs. You can get BlueHost’s high quality hosting for  $2.95 per month (36 months sign up) Use this link to get a free domain name with your hosting.

2. Create Great Content

So now that you have built your blog you are ready to create some blog posts for your readers.
The reason this section is called “Great Content” is because your content really does need to be of a high standard. Everyday millions of blog posts are published on the internet and with so much competition for our limited attention spans you really have to be creating blog posts people are going to want to read and perhaps even share on social media or on their own blogs.

Make sure your posts are:

• Well formatted and look good with relevant images
• Are in-depth and entertaining
• Offer links to other posts to expand on points
I have created a guide to coming up with interesting blog post ideas which may help you here and this post covers some tips to writing great blog posts.

Useful Resources:

Free Stock Image Sites

3. Build Up Your Audience

I started my first ever blog by writing on a consistent schedule about myself, my hobbies and interests.

People found me via Google, Facebook, social media and my readership gradually grew over time to where it is today.

Once I had built up an audience, making money from blogging became an afterthought.

When you have a large group of fans interested in what you have to say, the money will come. Trust me on that.

The hard part is finding and gathering your fans.
Promote your blog
No matter how great your articles are no one is going to know about them unless you take time to promote your blog.

SEO

I know enough about SEO to probably be wrong about a lot of it. I could probably write a series of articles on SEO tactics I have learned over the years but as I am not an expert I’ll point you in the right direction to some good articles on the subject.
P.S. SEO is not dead, it’s one of the best traffic sources for people who will buy your products/services or sign up to your email lists. SEO is a lot harder than it once was but don’t ignore it.
Social Media

From my experience, the social media sites that send the most traffic to blogs in general are:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Google+
• Pinterest
• LinkedIn
• Reddit

The results will vary depending on your target audience.

If your blog is aimed around professional readers and business people you might have more potential traffic from LinkedIn and Google+. If your target reader is more visual it might make more sense to focus exclusively on Facebook, Pinterest and
Instagram for promoting your blog.

A great social media management tool for all this is Sendible. Try it for free for 30 days or check out my review on Sendible.

WordPress also have a variety of plugins that make it easy to put social sharing buttons on your blog posts. Some people like to limit the number of plugins they use on their WordPress blog because it can slow the blog down and it can open your blog up to more attacks, butt a social sharing plugin is one that should have high priority if you do choose to use plugins.

THESE ARE THE TOP SOCIAL SHARING PLUGINS FOR WORDPRESS:

• https://wordpress.org/plugins/sharebar/
• http://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-socializer/
• http://wordpress.org/plugins/scrolling-social-sharebar/
• http://wordpress.org/plugins/digg-digg/
• http://wordpress.org/plugins/flare/
• http://wordpress.org/plugins/share-this/

Those are six popular sharing buttons. There are many more. Whichever you choose make sure you limit the number of icons that appear and also make sure the plugin doesn’t slow down your page speed dramatically. If it does you’ll lose readers.

Sharing your blog content on social media is an art. There is no right way to do it. People have success sharing blog content in their own unique ways. Some will share only their blog links on social media. Others will share a high percentage of unique content on social media.
As is with most things in life, sometimes the best approach is somewhere in the middle.

Paid Advertising

Paying for clicks and traffic on social media or in the search engines can be a great option to market your blog. A lot of the information about blog marketing covers the organic options. While some of these can turn your blog into a popular destination quickly the more likely scenario is that it will take time for you to build communities to promote your blog content.
With paid methods, you have the opportunity to pay for traffic and clicks right away. And if you do well in targeting your audience on the right channels you can easily build your audience with advertising to supplement your organic efforts.

Facebook – Depending on your niche you can expect to pay about $1 per click to your blog, but there are many variables that can influence how much you will pay. Depending on the nature of your business this can provide some excellent ROI in terms of initial sales, but the main focus of this ad campaign is to get people to your blog. Wow them with your content and get them to opt-in to your email list for more updates.
Twitter – has a variety of ad options like Facebook and other social networks. The best one for your blog marketing efforts is the Promoted Tweets option. You can expect about $0.50 to $0.75 estimated cost per engagement, which is Twitter’s way of telling you what your cost per click is.
Reddit – ads appear on the top of the various pages. They are obviously ads so users don’t feel tricked into clicking on them. When people choose to select an ad they usually know it. So there is little chance of upsetting customers this way.
LinkedIn – has traditional online advertising that appears in the sidebar, but the Sponsored Updates options is much more advantageous for content producers.
Build Your Email List

You will see lots of bloggers who proclaim that the money is in the list. In my early days I didn’t buy in to this ideology but now it’s one of the most important things I focus on.

Once you’ve developed your fan base, it is essential to retain them as you continue to build your personal brand.

In the case of my blog, about 99% of my early readers would come, read a single article, and then leave forever. So instead of missing out on a potential regular, I started gathering email addresses using a service called Awebber, but these days I prefer

GetResponse.
In return for a reader’s email address, I would give away a free 7 day email course via email. About 85% of the time, that reader would stick around after the mini course to check out my new articles and updates.

In fact, I have readers on my blogs that have stuck with me for over 6 years!?!

The key to growing your mailing list is to keep your existing fans while at the same time as attracting new readers. This way, your audience will increase month on month.

If you are not sure about which list building software to use I have reviewed a variety of email marketing services for you.